How Things Fall Apart
by kitty materia princess
Summary: Without the Planet aiding them for an upcoming predicament, Yuffie embarks on a journey where all of what she believed in comes to an end. Post DoC. FFVII compliant. Formerly Daydreamers and Stargazers & How I Became the Sea.
1. How Things Fall Apart

**How Things Fall Apart**

**Diclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII is owned by Square Soft/Enix. Most characters and places in this fiction belongs to its copyright unless specified.

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Big things resulted from minute beginnings. It's how the Planet works, yes? Everything, living or non-living, courses an unending path called cycle and it goes like this: birth-life-death; rinse, repeat. However, it is not that simple as the Planet is also governed by a multitude of laws. One of the most common is that of the Law of Equilibrium stating that if there is likeness, there will always be an opposition. We were fed with these thoughts since we were born. It has always been the foundation of what we believe. These were the bases of our actions, of our thoughts, and of our emotions.

Yet, all of these will be in qualm as our heroine threads through her life. And in her journey, what something she believed in, comes to an end.

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**Author's Note: **This is a major reboot of my earlier story "Daydreamers and Stargazers". I decided to make a drastic change in the plot due to a lot of factors. I have been working on this for three years already and in my point of view, I've already matured on a lot of things, writing style included. The original story kicked off with Yuffie's cheesy 3 chapter dream (yes, three chapters) that made me cringe some time after it was published. Actually, this already had a number of reboots (another title for this was "How I Became The Sea") but I didn't find it satisfactory, leading to the accidental deletion of the original one. It was posted on my profile anyway, if you're interested to read it. And, no, this version won't be a cheesy one.

Please tell me what you think about this. Also, I'm looking for a beta-reader who can (at least virtually) hit me in the head with a newspaper for my illogical plot sequences and my wide array of grammatical errors. Please PM me if you're interested. Thankies a bunch~!


	2. Part 1: The Beginning of the End

**How Things Fall Apart**

Part 1

The Beggnining of the End

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Once upon a time you meet one person.

And your life changes forever.

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**Author's Note:** This story will be done in parts, unlike what I have originally planned since I'm planning for a crazy long story. Why? In the future, I'd love to say to myself:_ "Hey, I have finished the story that I have been working for years where everything fell into place and I regret nothing."_ while patting myself at the back or giving myself self-fives. Kidding aside, there'll be two updates today since these part-scenes are just introduction and/or timeline indicators.


	3. A Break in Her Mask

**How Things Fall Apart**

Chapter 1

A Break in Her Mask

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Yuffie was having a few drinks at a downtown bar, gulping down the fiery amber liquid to ease her fatigue from today's paper works. Working on her studies as well as the task at hand was definitely no easy stint. Reams and envelopes of documents and printed data littered her desk as she anthologized the Omega files. There were books too; haphazardly stacked on the floor together with a number of binders with their pages either crumpled or torn from the fasteners. She was working and studying straight for weeks, rejecting any help from others and faithfully but languidly pursuing the file's completion.

She made a conclusive tap on her keyboard, finally finishing the task at hand; feeling eyes strain from prolonged exposure to the monitor as she damned herself from not wearing glasses, believing that it was unnecessary and at the same time, she thought that she looked ridiculous with it. With her fingers sore from many hours of typing and her thoughts clouded due to lack of sleep, it appealed to her that after-work booze was absolutely a well-deserved treat.

She made another motion for the barkeep to refill her drink: Kalm's finest whiskey on the rocks, as she always liked it. No one else knew besides her companion knew that she picked up on the habit of drinking her stress up as most of her friends customarily treated her as a minor, to the point that they enforced curfews and do's and don'ts as if she was still sixteen years old.

The bar seemed to be torrid as the season began to change from spring to summer, urging her to take another swig of her spirit to relieve the heat. For a female, she has quite a good tolerance on alcohol, having used to procuring his father's secret stash of sake to numb the pain after a near-death combat when she was young. She smiled at the memory.

"Smiling without reasons, huh. Never knew you were that bonkers." Reno said, taking a swig of the beer bottle at hand.

"Shut uuup." Yuffie chided and ordered for another round of her drink.

"Drinking too much, eh? Thought you'd be pleased that he's back." Reno noticed her fingers tightened around her glass but her face was impassive and blasé, betraying her body language. Then, Yuffie emptied her glass in one go, snorting as she finished.

"He?" she asked, trying to look and sound oblivious despite of the fact that she was assured of what his answer will be.

"You know, the man in the red cape," he sought her face, looking for a break of emotion. "Vincent Valentine." he added to emphasize the thought but still, there were no breaks in her emotional mask.

Her lips formed an O though her eyes were still set at her glass, the moisture dripping on her fingers. Heavy silence filled the void between them, gnawing on the comfortable companionship that was present just a while ago. She contemplated for another round but realized that her thirst was long gone. Instead, it was replaced by a sinking feeling in her stomach, urging her to wrench and dry heave although she's not drunk. In fact, she felt exhausted and it frustrated her that the alcohol failed to ease her fatigue.

Jumping off of the stool, she tossed a few more Gil at the Mahogany countertop before briefly exiting the bar but not bidding goodbye to her companion, as she always did. With a shake of his head, Reno watched her leave with a contrite gaze as she vanished from his sight.

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**Author's Note:** I'm apologizing for the lack of interesting moments in the first chapter. I know that an uninteresting first chapter should be a taboo but I really really really suck at starting stories that I have to rewrite this bajillion times. Finally, I've settled with this chapter since this is the less angsty version among the copies. On the good side: this should give you a head start on what Yuffie was doing before Vincent's return and the general theme on how this story would go. I'm still working on how Yuffie and Vincent will meet because I'm not even convinced on how my ideas roll at the moment.

Please review! It would really help me if I'll know what you think of this. It doesn't matter how or what it is, I'm even open for a criticizing review-bomb from a Grammar Nazi. (LOL) And also, your ideas on how Yuffie and Vincent should meet again. They would be highly appreciated (I'll give you virtual chocolate chip cookies for the keeps) and will be taken for consideration. Thankies!


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